One of those days

So, as today began we packed up and left Cancun to head for Saint Louis where we will be spend a couple days with our daughter and then will be taking Libby's parents and my "parents" to a Cardinals ball game on Monday night before heading home on Tuesday. We've had a great vacation, still none of us were really wanting to leave Cancun. We've been privileged to have been on many beaches but this was the most beautiful one's we've seen yet. As if ending vacation is  not bad enough, the ordeal of dealing with the airports is a real downer. I have to say that navigating the airport in Cancun was far easier than the ones in the USA. Everyone was pleasant and helpful, getting through security was very simple and quick. We boarded our plane very quickly and were set to go. As we were waiting for everyone to board, we had a very pleasant talk with Katie, our flight attendant as well as some of the other passengers around us.

Then came the good news. They were having some trouble with the air conditioning, so we would be delayed "a few minutes." 

Just over 45 minutes later, we finally began to taxi out, making us around an hour behind schedule. We were only scheduled for two hours between landing in Charlotte before boarding our next flight. In that time we had to get our checked bag, clear customs, recheck our bag and then go through security again. When we got to customs, Daniel was flagged to go through a further identification check. I told him that it was because with his dark complexion, beard and dark hair he looked like someone from the Middle East. So, we were even further delayed.

Once we got through all this stuff, we had to go through TSA again. I have to say that the TSA workers in Charlotte were the rudest I've ever run into. Not just one, but all of them. It was not only toward us, but the way they spoke to everyone was insulting and demeaning. One woman in particular was just flat out mean spirited and insulting to everyone she spoke to. We were told to go through one area and when we got there the TSA agent told us to go further to another check point quite a ways out of the way. I said, "sir, we are going to miss our flight." He responded, "If you insist on staying here I promise you will miss your flight by more than a little." My wife is not good at getting people's drift and she wanted to stand there and plead our case to the man. I kept telling her to just move on, but she wanted to talk. Finally I told her that he was threatening us and that if we did not do as he said he would personally see to it that we missed our flight. So we had to go to the next section further down the terminal, even though our departing gate was back by the first one.  Going through TSA they decided my knee brace was "suspicious" and I was pulled to be screened further and they wanted to know why I needed a brace. I had to explain to them that I've had 7 surgeries on my knee and that I need this brace when I'm on me feet for a prolonged time. One guy said that I was OK, but another woman wanted to check it out, so I had to remove it and let them check it out. We finally got through and were now in a race. By the time we cleared all this stuff and checked our bag again, we had 12 minutes to get to our fight, and of course we were in the next to the last gate in the entire terminal. We ran the distance of the place and got there just as they were calling for our section to board. We made it, but none of us had time to use the bathroom or grab a drink or anything to eat, so we are sitting here on the plane eating a bag of chips and hummus to hold us over until we arrive in Saint Louis. It sure is great to be back in the United States.